The brains of older adults feel a sense of reward when listening to music, even if it含羞草研究社檚 a song they don含羞草研究社檛 particularly like, a researcher at British Columbia含羞草研究社檚 Simon Fraser University says.
Sarah Faber said her work on how healthy brains respond to music as they age creates a baseline for future research on people who have Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚 or dementia to better understand those diseases.
含羞草研究社淭here含羞草研究社檚 a lot of interest in how to predict who might be going to develop dementia or Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚 disease and then once people do develop Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚 and dementia, who is going to respond to treatment and what kind of treatment,含羞草研究社� she said.
含羞草研究社淭he brain is fascinating, but it doesn含羞草研究社檛 exist in a jar. It含羞草研究社檚 attached to a body, that含羞草研究社檚 attached to an environment, and community, and a social structure.含羞草研究社�
The research published in the journal Network Neuroscience featured 80 participants, including university students and people as old as 90, who took functional MRI scans.
The younger group of adults had an average age of 19, while the other group had an average age of 67.
Everyone listened to 24 samples, including songs they selected themselves, popular music intentionally chosen by researchers and songs composed specifically for the study.
Faber said they found reward sections of the brain were activated in younger adults while they listened to music they liked or were familiar with, but older adults showed the same area being stimulated even when the music was new to them, or they didn含羞草研究社檛 like it.
含羞草研究社淭here wasn含羞草研究社檛 this gatekeeping functionality that we see in younger adults with their auditory network kind of being like, 含羞草研究社極K, well, if we like this, we get rewards. But if we don含羞草研究社檛 like this, we don含羞草研究社檛 get rewards,含羞草研究社櫤卟菅芯可鐫 she said.
含羞草研究社淲hereas for older adults, it was just like, 含羞草研究社楳usic! Reward! Yes!含羞草研究社櫤卟菅芯可鐫
Faber, who was a music therapist before becoming a neuroscientist, said research into people with Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚 can be challenging if someone is unable to speak, or explain what they are thinking or feeling in a moment.
She said anything they can learn about how to make the music therapies more effective would be helpful, but the benefits go beyond that.
含羞草研究社淛ust understanding 含羞草研究社� how the brain deals with complex stimuli, through Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚, that would be a really good and a very useful bunch of information to get for people that are working in Alzheimer含羞草研究社檚, not necessarily just in music,含羞草研究社� Faber said.
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